Another addition to CritterVille..

..please go and check it out - make it welcome over on the Critter Blog

WOYWW

What's on my Worktop Wednesday...

MESS mainly - thats what is on my desk - OK its creative mess but MESS all the same! lol ... and the necessary cup of coffee, and some in progress class samples for Imagine That
(and bits of work that are on a looooong to do list - do you all have those - a to do lis that never ends!  Love it, but for once I'd love to clear it too! lol)

Thats it for this week - I'm off to work through the list.  I'll pop round later for a visit/nose about...

less painting... more sewing

I love to sew & thats what I spent yesterday doing - I made this out of 2 new tea-towels

I couldn't find a peg bag for sale in any shops - let alone one that I liked so I made my own! *patting myself on back*
I had some fabric left over, and I need to make some Critters to sell at Village Green in September so I made a couple  go check them out on the Critter's blog

Onwards and upwards.... back to paper and paint.....

Getting all 'painty'...

...and loving it!   I signed up for Claudine Hellmuth's online class and yesterday I started working through the 'lessons'.  The classes are about paint and mixed media and I'm really enjoying it - revisiting techniques that I'd forgotten about or hadn't used before... and getting myself and the surrounding areas covered in paint.. even Bertie(cat) is sporting a smudge of blue paint but I'm really not sure how that happened....

Aaaanyhoo for the class we're building up a samples book and I'm making mine out of the Papermania chipboard book I showed a few posts ago (go here).. It was v cheap and I didn't know how it would take paint etc and how much it might warp..
I said I'd let you know how the albums fared and so ... drum roll please ... here are the findings of my 'not-very-scientific-paint/chipboard' experiment...

exhibit a: acrylic paint applied to ONE side:

Look how lovely and flat they still are.. normally with chipboard I'd expect to need to paint both sides to balance it up and keep it 'flat' (I think the not warping is helped by the kraft paper cover-layer that the boards have- maybe stops the moisture from soaking into the boards??)

exhibit b: paint, gesso, embossing powders, more paint (in several layers when it didn't go right the first time..):

Not too bad! I think they'll be even flatter once I've put them under something heavy for a few hours...

So I am happy to report (straightening out white lab coat and consulting clipboard) that the Papermania chipboard albums are well worth their £3.00 price tag!

There ends todays crafting lesson.

Building a Daisy...

.... over on the Banana Frog blog today - go take a look here while I go and teach a class at Imagine That for the day.  Enjoy!

If you squint and look carefully...

... you'd have seen my 'snow' bunting on Create & Craft TV yesterday - obviously Bev (Queen of the Lilypad over at Banana Frog) and her demonstrations on the Banana Frog show were the main attraction but my bunting was there in the background... shown here top right in this dodgy photograph taken of the tv screen (again)

Now that picture's not really doing my bunting any justice at all  ( :o)  ) so here are some much better shots....

What can I say - bunting makes me happy!  I think I'm going to have to make some more in this colour way to go across the fireplace at christmas because it matches last years decorations perfectly! (though not sure how M would feel about that - its 'quite' girlie! lol)

I'm quite impressed that it looks so christmassy considering that when I made it the temperature outside was in the high 80s!!

Tomorrow I'll have several heads on (Worzel Gummage stylee) - I'll be teaching with PaperArtsy products over at Imagine That (which I'm looking forward to) and its also my day over on the Banana Frog Blog....
Sheesh!  Its all in the planning!

Jessica's card

Birth card for a friend's new arrival - I can blog it now she's recieved it.  It has a lot going on and I love how it turned out! (am patting myself on the back.. lol) Its sooo girly and pink, with sparkles (obviously!). I always like to make baby cards special but I wanted this to be extra special because this little lady arrived 8 weeks early and weighed just 3lbs 10oz!!  She's at home and doing well, and I'll be popping round for a cuddle very soon! Big congrats to V&T!

Imagine That 'Stress-free Distress' class sneak peek ...

Here's some sneak peeks of the class I'm teaching at Imagine That on Friday, a few places left - ring the shop to book a place and come and get a little bit inky!!

July 16th

August 26th

(images from www.Imaginethatpapercrafts.co.uk)

Classes...

I've been busy behind the blog scene lining up new classes and projects... the first of which is a set of classes at Imagine That Papercrafts in Upminster. 

I'm really looking forward to working with this shop - I have some great classes planned (ahem, even if I do say so myself! lol)  Some classes will be clean, neat & tidy and others may require an apron! lol You've got to get inky sometimes!  It all adds to the fun!
The shop has some fab products, & you can find details of mine and other classes, and have a look around the shop, HERE!
My classes are as follows, and more info can be found on Imagine That's site:

Christmas Unleashed:
14 August 2010
23 September 2010

Masterboard Magic
Floral:  29 July 2010
Christmas:  18 September 2010

Stress-Free Distress
16 July 2010
26 August 2010

back in the land of Blog

I'm sorry - I've been neglecting the blog a bit recently - my www time has been spent looking into the little 2x3in screen of my i-phone.... having an i-phone could make a person lazy 'cos you don't have to get up, go to the pc & and check something on-line you just stretch out your arm and pick up the phone! My electricity bill has probably gone down as a result of having the phone 'cos the PC's not left on during the day! lol But that is no excuse!
I also discovered Twitter... which is a bit of a strange concept because it feels like you're stalking people.. which I'm not, obviously! And it is such a good networking tool - and very funny - the tweets bouncing backwards and forwards during the Eurovision Song Contest were so funny I almost fell off my sofa from laughing!  I like the short, fast message nature of it - how much can you cram into 140 characters?!
So I've put my twitter feed over on the right ... so blog readers can see AAAALLL my ramblings! lol I'd hate for anyone to miss out!

So what do you think of the blog's new layout?  NICE!  Though I'm feeling the posts may be a bit cramped  in the middle with the columns going down the sides but I'll give it a few days to get used to it... or not!  It might be a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees!  Too much info...

Coming clean...

In yesterday's post I mentioned that I had to 'come clean' about something... and so here it is (its not a major 'something') but in the past I've been 'a bit' dismissive about DoCrafts and Papermania products but I believe you should credit where credits due... and I have to say that recently Papermania have come out with some cracking products!  I've always liked the Papermania 12x12 plain scrapbooking cardstock - great for stamping on and constructing things from, and now they have these:

These chipboard pieces are great! They are so much better than I expected - for just less that £3.00 the square/scalloped books have about 6 pages of sturdy board and book rings. This means you could use it to create 1 book completely made of board pages or use the boards as covers for 3 books!! or a hanging... something-or-other.  A budget little beauty!  I don't know how well they'll take paint etc - I'll keep you posted - but for under £3 its worth a punt!

The books that spell out a word - I chose the Home and Love versions - are reeaaaally nice!

The stamp set is great too for putting dates on projects - the 'handwritten' text is unfussy, easy to read (not all handwritten types are) and came in several sizes in the same pack!!! all for under a tenner!  and as the font of the numbers is unfussy and clean it can be altered, doodled up, embellished - Love it! Would work equally well on distressed or clean projects.

I was a happy little crafter when I left the shop with those!  lol
There I said it - '...DoCraft product is really nice' its not a sentence that comes out of my mouth readily or often! (might be a first in fact!)  Its not that they're completely terrible poducts - they're just not generally not my 'thing'.
But don't worry I haven't gone completely over the the dark side......   and its not what you buy its what you do with it.....